Karol Valencia, AI Adoption and Change Manager at Saga, shared her insights on the importance of implementing human-centric AI in the legal sector. Drawing from her journey from traditional legal practice to AI adoption specialist, Valencia outlined practical approaches for successful AI implementation in legal teams.

What is Human-Centric AI?

Human-centric AI prioritises putting humans at the center of AI tool development rather than creating feature-heavy platforms that may overwhelm users. This approach focuses on enhancement over replacement, positioning AI as a tool to augment human capabilities rather than substitute legal professionals. The methodology focuses on accessibility and usability, ensuring systems are designed to be intuitive and beneficial across all segments of society while addressing AI’s ethical, social, and cultural implications.

Valencia compared this philosophy to successful consumer applications, noting that platforms like WhatsApp succeeded because they were “so intuitive, so well designed, so human-centred that nobody had to teach you how to use them.” The collaborative focus emphasises teamwork rather than creating technological silos, fundamentally changing how legal professionals interact with AI tools.

Understanding Diverse Legal Teams

Rather than adopting one-size-fits-all solutions, Valencia advocates for recognising the diverse landscape of legal teams, spanning from traditional law firms to in-house legal departments and solo practitioners. She prefers to think of these as “legal teams in general” rather than limiting the focus to conventional law firm categories.

Saga addresses this diversity through three distinct profiles: enterprise legal teams for larger organisations with complex needs, solo practitioners and legal operators including independent professionals, and students and emerging professionals who receive limited environments suitable for those beginning their legal careers. This inclusive approach ensures that AI tools are accessible across the legal profession’s entire spectrum.

Key Barriers to AI Adoption

Valencia identified two primary obstacles preventing widespread AI adoption in the legal sector. The first involves silos, where AI tools operate in isolation rather than as integrated ecosystems. She advocates for increased collaboration between AI platforms, viewing competitors as “good colleagues that were first there and they already evangelised about the topic.”

The second barrier involves professional ego and resistance to sharing knowledge or collaborating on AI implementations. This cultural challenge runs counter to the collaborative approach necessary for successful AI adoption and reflects broader issues within some legal environments where professionals are reluctant to embrace collective learning.

Training and Support Strategy

Successful AI implementation requires comprehensive support that extends far beyond simply providing tools. Valencia emphasised that “it’s not only about giving you the toy, it’s also giving you the strategy and teaching you how to play.”

Saga’s approach includes adoption programs comprising four to six sessions with each legal team, focusing on real-world use cases relevant to specific practice areas, custom prompt development for individual needs, collaborative project creation, and ongoing support and guidance.

This methodology directly addresses the common fear among legal professionals that AI will replace them by instead positioning AI tools as junior team members that enhance human capabilities. The training helps legal professionals understand how to integrate AI into their existing workflows while maintaining their professional expertise and judgment.

Measuring Success and Building Confidence

Valencia highlighted the critical importance of demonstrating value through concrete metrics and analytics. AI platforms should provide legal teams with data showing utilization rates, efficiency gains, and practical impact. This information serves multiple purposes: justifying continued investment in AI tools, identifying areas where additional training may be needed, building confidence among team members, and supporting budget discussions for expanded AI adoption.

The data-driven approach helps legal professionals see tangible benefits from their AI investments, making the case for continued adoption and helping teams understand where they can optimize their use of AI tools.

The Collaborative Future

Valencia envisions a future where AI transforms the legal profession through enhanced collaboration rather than competition. She advocates for viewing AI as “team members or maybe the junior of the juniors you have in your real team” rather than as replacement technology. This perspective fundamentally changes the relationship between legal professionals and AI from one of competition to collaboration.

In this collaborative model, AI tools can handle routine tasks that lawyers prefer to delegate, provide research and analysis support, facilitate knowledge sharing across teams, and enable more efficient client service. This approach allows legal professionals to focus on higher-value activities while AI manages more mundane or time-consuming tasks.

Regulatory Considerations

Valencia noted the increasing regulatory focus on AI implementation, particularly with the EU AI Act coming into full effect. This regulatory framework emphasises the importance of human-centric approaches by requiring legal AI platforms to “respect fundamental rights and legal ethics.” The regulatory environment reinforces the value of human-centric AI design, as compliance requires demonstrating that AI tools enhance rather than compromise professional standards and ethical obligations.

Key Takeaways

AI adoption is no longer optional for legal professionals due to regulatory requirements, client expectations, and competitive pressures. However, successful implementation requires more than simply purchasing AI platforms. It demands a human-centric approach that prioritises comprehensive training and support, collaborative implementation strategies, recognition of diverse legal team needs, ongoing measurement and refinement, and cultural change management.

The future of legal practice lies not in choosing between human expertise and artificial intelligence, but in creating synergistic relationships where both contribute to improved outcomes for clients while maintaining the professional excellence that clients expect. Valencia’s insights offer a practical roadmap for legal professionals ready to embrace this transformation while keeping human enhancement at the center of their AI strategy.